xxviii FOREWORD 



All efforts to reach the Pole had failed, notwithstand- 

 ing the unlimited sacrifice of gold and energy and blood 

 which had been poured out without stint for nearly 

 four centuries. But the sacrifice had not been with- 

 out compensation. Those who had ventured their 

 lives in the contest had not been actuated solely by 

 the ambition to win a race — to breast the tape first — 

 but to contribute, in Sir John Franklin's words, "to 

 the extension of the bounds of science." The scores of 

 expeditions, in addition to new geographical discov- 

 eries, had brought back a wealth of information about 

 the animals and vegetable life, the winds and currents, 

 deep sea temperatures, soundings, the magnetism of 

 the earth, fossils and rock specimens, tidal data, etc., 

 which have enriched many branches of science and 

 greatly increased the sum of human knowledge. 



A brief summer excursion to Greenland in 1886 

 aroused Robert E. Peary, a civil engineer in the United 

 States Navy, to an interest in the polar problem. 

 Peary a few years previously had been graduated 

 from Bowdoin College second in his class, a position 

 which means unusual mental vigor in an institution 

 which is noted for the fine scholarship and intellect of 

 its alumni. He realized at once that the goal which 

 had eluded so many hundreds of ambitious and daunt- 

 less men could be won only by a new method of attack. 



The first arctic problem with which Peary grappled 

 was considered at that time in importance second only 

 to the conquest of the Pole; namely, to determine the 

 insularity of Greenland and the extent of its projec- 

 tion northward. At the very beginning of his first 

 expedition to Greenland, in 1891, he suffered an acci- 



